10 ways in which having fewer toys might benefit your kids
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Having two kids of different genders, I certainly know how too many toys can pile up and how difficult and tricky it can be to adopt toy minimalism without feeling like you are a bad parent, ruining their childhood.
Yet I remember that when I was a child I would entertain myself playing outdoors most of the time, in the garden climbing up the trees or building ‘mud houses’ for the earthworms. At other times I would spend time with friends: riding bikes, running, inventing our own board games and lots of pretend plays.
I did have toys, though I don’t remember their number and I vividly remember just a handful of them. But I do remember playing tennis with my friends, building dens or making paper boats to float on puddles.
Remembering my own childhood, reading studies and books and noticing my kids better, I understood that…
The number of toys my kids have don’t make me a good or bad parent. Kids don’t need toys to be happy or creative. Click To TweetOn the contrary, toys can at times stand in the way of their imagination. So let’s see talk.
Why are fewer toys better? – 10 reasons
Children are less overwhelmed, more focused, their attention span improves
I remember at some point kids had so many toys that they couldn’t actually “see” them or focus on any of them, so I would hear them say “I don’t know what to play with…”. Has it ever happened to you to think “hm, it looks as if the more toys they have, the less they play with them”?
I totally understand them, it does get overwhelming to have too many choices and too many things around you. Even when they finally pull out a toy to play with, within minutes their attention might be drawn by something else.
Toys minimalism means the kids have more space to play and learn, they can see their options more clearly and can choose more easily, they no longer get overstimulated and therefore can focus better on what they are doing.

Fewer toys mean more time to play
Trying to decide what to play with when you have too many options takes time. This can be gained when there is less stuff around you, so it’s easier to decide.
Also, focusing on a certain game means you get to play longer then you would have played if your attention would’ve been drawn by some other toy every few minutes.
Tidying up toys is more manageable
“It’s tidy-up time!” when the room is full of toys can be really overwhelming for a kid: “Where does all this stuff go? What should I do with all of this?”. But when there are fewer toys, each with a designated storage place, tidy-up time is no longer a battle or a burden and kids are able to clean up the play area all by themselves, which is quite empowering.
What’s more, the tidy up time is shorter as there are less toys to tidy up! Hence, more time to play.
Children become more independent
The result of the two points mentioned earlier – kids can choose and decide what to play with and they can manage the tidy-up by themselves – means they are more independent, which makes them more confident.
Children become more resilient
When you have many options, it’s easy to give up on a toy when it becomes too challenging in favour of an easier one. But when you don’t have too many options, when things become challenging, you persevere. This happens with kids as well and this helps them practise their patience and determination.
Creativity, resourcefulness and imagination spark more often
Kids have natural creativity and wonderful imagination and when they don’t rely on toys to entertain themselves, they will invent so many games and stories and constructions that they will amaze us.
Truth be told, kids don’t need any toy at all to be happy and creative, they can build a den with a sheet and two chairs or they can be superheroes with the same sheet used to build the den!

There is more time to be spent with the family and outdoors
Kids who have less toys are more willing to help their parents around the house – cooking, doing the dishes or sorting the laundry. Also, they go outside more often as nature becomes their source of inspiration and entertainment.
Kids learn to make mindful decisions
Toys minimalism means kids get to decide what to buy in the first place, and also what to keep. They get to practice making decisions and being conscious consumers, realizing what they actually need and want and the value of things. They learn that more or bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
Children appreciate more what they already have
When you have a hundred pens, is any pen special or do you appreciate any? But when you have only two, chances are, they are special, they might even have memories attached to them. The same happens with toys: when the room is filled to the ceiling with toys, most of them will not be special and will have no memory attached to them.
When there are fewer toys, kids actually manage to notice them, to recall memories attached to them and they learn to care for them. This is also a step towards teaching kids gratitude, encouraging them to appreciate what they have.
Siblings get to practice their sharing and cooperation skills
Siblings rivalry is natural and it’s the ‘fight’ over the same resources, mainly parents’ love and attention. But it can also manifest itself as a ‘fight’ over toys.
When there are a lot of toys, each child tries to establish a territory. When there are fewer toys, they have no choice but to find a way to collaborate, to find a solution that works for both of them. And having too many or duplicate toys doesn’t offer the chance to learn and practise all these skills.
What and how many toys should a child have?
In case you are worried that adopting a minimalist lifestyle might interfere with your kids’ childhood, just remember that nature and the surrounding environment are always at their disposal – you must have noticed kids absolutely love a metal pot and a lid, some rice or sand to play with or some stones to throw in the water.
Still, just to cover the topic of toys and their educational and fun roles throughout childhood, I’ve created a list with the main categories of toys that benefit kids development. Please note that none of these is necessary and your child doesn’t have to have a toy from each category, it’s just for you to have a better idea of what toys might be of use to your kid.
As this post is quite long already, I created a FREE printable that you can easily receive in your inbox.

What do you do when your child has too many toys?
There is a lot to talk about on the topic of toy minimalism and reducing toy clutter, so I wrote a post that includes 4 easy steps to start toy decluttering with kids and ideas to get them on board through a respectful parenting approach. I also talk about sustainable toy minimalism, so I hope you enjoy it.
Photos: personal archive
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Raluca Zagura is a mum of two, based in London, and she is also a Certified Hand in Hand Parenting Instructor.


15 Comments
Sarah
Yes! I love this. A developmental therapist and agree whole heatedly.
Chelsae
Wow, there are way more benefits than I even imagined! I’ve been wanting to get rid of so many toys. And selfishly I want to do it to cut down on clutter. I just don’t even know where to start.
raluca
It is surprising indeed to see in how many ways kids can benefit from toy minimalism 😉 And I know it can be overwhelming at first, but stay tuned as I will soon post more details about how we did it and how we got the kids on board 😉
Liv
I totally agree with the many benefits of not having too much toys. Besides they get so tired of toys quickly.
Ashley Lavoie
I really like this and will pin for more readers! Too many toys absolutely overwhelms kids and having three of them (kids, that is), I can attest to this! When I ran my home daycare, I would do “toy rotation” and only bring out 4-5 toys at a time. This helped all the kids learn to share and also how the toys were meant to be played with (put the cars down the ramp instead of throwing them across the room, things like that!). When I noticed them wandering around, saying they were tired of the toys,I rotated them all out. All the toys became brand new to them and we got another few weeks with that rotation of minimal toys. Their imaginations really soar when they aren’t bombarded with a ton of toys!
Megan
This post is very insightful about toy minimalism. I hadn’t thought about much of this before, and will definitely consider these points before buying more toys.
Luke
I agree. That was easy huh? 🙂
raluca
You’ll have to wait for my next post on toy minimalism to find out if it was easy or not 😉 :)) By the way, did you have many toys as a kid, or was it more of a minimalism approach?
Amy Smith
Great ideas. I need to do this with my daughter. She has SO many toys! She does play with them but there are a ton that she doesn’t play with!
Kisha Stewart-Harris
I would most definitely consider myself a toy minimalist– I have to be with five children. There would literally be toys everywhere if I didn’t keep toy purchases to a minimum. In fact, we frequently go through toy buckets and crates and eliminate old and broken toys before I will purchase any more. I find that my children are definitely more creative and imaginative in their play because they aren’t reliant on toys for stimulation.
Wander women abroad
Helping instill minimalist ideas into children is great! It’ll teach them to appreciate all the things they already have and not get caught up in the consumer culture we live in
natalie
I completely agree with this post, we have far too many toys and I find my 2 year old gets really overwhelmed with it all and ends up playing with none of them! Definitely time for a clear out!
Emmy
In 2015, we sold almost everything we owned to travel full time for a year. Prior to that, I would take my son to the toy store at least twice a month to get him something new and it wasn’t until we sold everything that I realized how crazy that was! When we got back to home base, I was still in the mindset of minimalism. My son has benefited in all the ways you have listed AND I have saved so much money!
Jade
I keep trying to keep my son’s toys to a minimum and fail all the time! lol
Cori
I loved this. It’s something I definitely struggle with- more from others giving toys as gifts.